Odds and Ends
by ShiTiger
Summary: A set of Transformers ficlets and minifics. Alternate universes, OCs, and strange little stories that never became full fics. Slash and suggested slash.
1. The 12th Prime

Ch 1: **The 12****th**** Prime**

* * *

(Inspired by MLP: Luna Eclipsed, and partially based on a previous fic)

Summary: MTMTE, AU. Landing on an uncharted planet, the crew of the Lost Light find themselves facing a deadly foe: The Fallen (and his horde of spark-eaters). Tailgate finds himself stuck in a cavern with the ancient Prime, and accidentally frees him from the control of Unicron.

(I've always loved the idea of "The Fallen" being the original seeker/vosian-frame. There didn't seem to be a lot of information about him until recently, but I already has this fic in the works)

Note: This story is based on the legend of the 13 Primes, not the 5 Primes in the creation story that Cyclonus told Rewind in MTMTE vol. 3) The Fallen, in this story, reverts to his true form which is a seeker-like mech with four wings, dark armor, and red optics. Very AU!

* * *

"We thank you, citizen, for freeing us from Unicron's dark influence! We are The Fallen no longer! Gaze upon the second youngest of the 13 Primes! We are Megatronus Prime, guardian of death and rebirth! Behold our true power and glory!"

The mini-bot felt the booming voice echo through his core, freezing him in place. His blue visor remained fixed on the towering figure poised on delicate heels. Crimson optics seemed to pierce through his spark, rendering him silent before the mech more ancient than himself.

The seeker-like being cocked his helm to the side, before stepping a few paces forward. Tailgate attempted to scuttle back, but the ancient Cybertronian stomped a pede on the ground to keep his attention.

"Why do you flee, tiny citizen! Are you not pleased to look upon your Prime once more!"

Tailgate let out a whimper, wishing desperately for someone, anyone (but preferably Cyclonus) to rescue him.

Red optics rebooted as the four-winged seeker let out a sigh at the minibot's distress. "Why do you continue to fear your Prime?! You will be greatly rewarded for assisting us in our time of need! Before you take us to our brothers, you may ask any boon that is within our power to grant!"

"... What?" the bomb-disposal unit squeaked, unable to even consider getting to his feet, much less asking the giant seeker for a favor.

"Speak up! We grow impatient, little one!"

"Can you... stop shouting?" Tailgate chirped, cringing at the look the ancient Prime directed at him.

"This is the proper volume for addressing the citizens of Cybertron! But, as you are so very small, we shall lower our voice for the time being."

Tailgate sighed as the booming voice faded to a pleasant conversational tone. Nervously getting to his pedes, the minibot still found himself nearly bent over backward just to look up at the incredibly tall being.

"You seem to have difficulty with our size, tiny one. Very well. We shall make our regal selves smaller until we have arrived to greet our honoured brothers," Megatronus announced.

Tailgate felt his optics widen behind his visor as the four-winged seeker seemed to shrink before him, coming to a stop when they could gaze into each others' optics without either having to look up.

"Is this better, little one?" the Prime's voice seemed far too large for the minibot-sized body he currently inhabited.

"Yes," Tailgate squeaked.

* * *

Tailgate approached the Lost Light with the miniature Prime following regally behind him. The other crew members were repairing the last of the damages to the ship, readying themselves for take-off.

Spotting a familiar red and gold mech talking animatedly with Ultra Magnus, Tailgate quickened his steps. "Rodimus, I really need to talk to you."

"Not now, Taildrive."

"Tailgate."

"Whatever. Why don't you go help Swerve do... minibot stuff," Rodimus waved the little mech off with barely a glance.

"But Rodimus Prime, you really need to..." Tailgate jumped as another voice rose above all the others.

"Prime?! Has our honored father graced us with another sibling?! We are Megatronus Prime and we have been released from Unicron's control!"

Every mech in the area had turned to stare at the winged minibot who appeared to have a voice as loud as a mech three times his size.

"Who's your new friend, Taildancer? He's a little small for a Decepticon, isn't he?" Rodimus asked, noting the bright crimson optics on the dark-plated minibot.

"Did you not hear us?! We are Megatronus Prime! You have known us previously as The Fallen! We are grateful to this tiny... we are grateful to Tailgate for freeing us from the dark influence of Unicron! Tell us the location of our brothers so that we might be reunited once more!" the little seeker insisted, all four wings twitching.

Tailgate buried his head in his servos as the laughter rose around them. This was not going to end well. Glancing up, he caught sight of the confused red optics peering at the amused mechs surrounding them.

"I... We do not understand..." Megatronus seemed, for the first time, uncertain of how to proceed.

"They don't believe you," Tailgate admitted aloud. The idea was rather preposterous. Only a day before, they'd been battling the towering, very much on-fire, form of The Fallen, and his horde of spark-eaters. The minibot could only imagine what the others were thinking. How could the tiny flier possibly be the terrifying mech they'd been taught to fear since their sparkling days?

A strange commotion started up, turning laughter into shouts of alarm. "Guns at the ready! We got a pair of spark-eaters coming our way!" an unidentified voice shouted.

"Move back," Ultra Magnus instructed, pushing Tailgate back a step. Megatronus was in the air, flying toward the creatures without a second thought.

"Hold your fire!" Rodimus shouted, racing after the clearly insane minibot. Gun at the ready, he only hoped he could hit them both before they tore the little mech to shreds.

"STOP!" the flier's voice boomed across the rocky tundra, startling the dangerous spark-eaters into freezing in their tracks. Hideous faces gazed at the winged minibot who proceeded to land directly before them.

Rodimus crept closer, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

The smaller mech knelt, one servo held out to the spark-thirsty beasts. "Hush, my pets. You no longer serve The Fallen. Return to the forms I created for you so many cycles ago. Remember your true purpose."

The young Prime stopped short, his optics widening as the spark-eaters seemed to shift into beast-mode before him. Two silver, cat-like creatures took their place, no longer the grotesque spark-eaters they'd fought in the past.

"That's right. Hush now, my spark collectors. My precious helpers," the seeker crooned, allowing the pair to come closer and nuzzle his neck fondly, despite the fact that they towered over his diminutive body.

Rodimus slipped closer, watching the mini-bot interact with the strange pair. At one point, the seeker let out a mournful sound and seemed to sway on his feet. "You are the last. Your siblings have all been destroyed. No, I will not blame the citizens for defending themselves... but I will protect you, my precious pets."

"Who are you?" Rodimus found himself asking.

"We have already informed you of our name and title. We are Megatronus Prime, second youngest of the thirteen Primes," the minibot answered, turning to face the red and gold mech.

"That's impossible. Megatronus wasn't a minibot seeker. At least, the stories never mentioned he was," Roddy scratched his chin and eyed the smaller being standing before him.

"We are capable of reducing our size, brother. We are clearly not the first minibot. That honor goes to our brother, Micronus," Megatronus stated.

"Are you using the royal we, or are you actually saying that I can change my size too?" the crimson Prime gestured for the minibot to follow him back toward the ship.

"This is how we were taught to address our mortal brethren," the seeker stated, frowning up at his new brother.

"If you really are who you say you are, then I should probably get Ultra Magnus to fill you in on the last several billion years," Rodimus sighed.

"We would be most interested in meeting this Ultra Magnus you speak of, brother," Megatronus insisted, easily keeping up with the taller mech.

"I'm not actually your brother, you know. There have been a lot of Primes since the time of the Original 13. Ultra Magnus can explain it better than I can," Roddy held up a servo to stop the smaller bot from asking the numerous questions that were clearly on his processor.

"Very well. We shall get our answers from your trusted companion instead."

* * *

Tailgate hadn't seen the new seeker for several days. Ultra Magnus had been strangely absent as well. And now he found himself being dragged down to Swerve's bar by the minibot seeker, who was much stronger than he looked.

"I have been told that this is the place where bots "hang out," Megatronus commented as they waited for their drinks.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Tailgate agreed, glancing around quickly to see if his roommate was there. Sadly, there was no sign of him. Not that he minded spending time with his new friend (even if he was a little scary).

"Hang out... what a strange way to speak of spending time with one's companions," the seeker mused. He made sure to thank the cute minibot who was running the bar. Really, those petite mechs reminded him of his adorable older brother. He'd always had a soft spot for Micronus.

* * *

Note: And that's that. Hope you enjoyed the mini-story!


	2. Triplet Trouble

**Ch 2: Triplet Trouble**

Summary: Strongly inspired by a series of picture books from my childhood. "Jimmy's Boa Adventures" by Trinka Hakes Noble and Steven Kellogg.

Note: G1. Optimus and Megatron are brothers in this one.

* * *

It was a beautiful, sunny day on planet Earth. The birds were singing, the flowers were growing, the giant alien robots were engaged in a battle... yup, just your average day.

"We're going to win this time, Prime," Megatron growled at his arch nemesis (and brother).

"You will never win, Megatron!" Optimus answered, glancing up as a multi-colored seeker swooped overhead. Starscream came to a landing next to the Decepticon leader.

"Daddy! Mummy!"

The sudden eruption of little voices from Starscream's comm. link had the seeker pausing and cocking his helm to the side. He internally flicked off the public comm. to ensure the conversation would stay private.

Megatron just glared at his second in command. Really, trust Starscream to keep his speakers on during an important battle. Not acceptable!

"You broke Shockwave? How did you break Shockwave?... What do you mean the squid ate him?! The Nemesis is flooding?" Starscream squawked loudly, drawing the attention of the Autobots and Decepticons nearby who were staring at him in shock.

Starscream rubbed his optics and sighed loudly before grabbing Megatron by the arm and yanking him away from the main battleground.

"Starscream!"

"This battle is over," the seeker announced, making sure each and every Decepticon heard him.

"I'm the leader here, Starscream. I'll be the one to say when the battle is over!" Megatron raged, fury welling up inside of him at the seeker's audacity.

"If you want to return to a dry ship, rather than a completely submerged one, then I suggest you end the battle now," Starscream hissed, stamping a high-heeled foot on the ground.

"What did your younglings do now?" the Decepticon leader growled, gritting his dentia.

"My younglings?! It takes two to cyber-tango," the seeker snarled, glaring up at the larger Decepticon.

The pair began to bicker loudly even as the two groups dropped apart and the battle ended without much fuss.

"Decepticons, fall back! Return to the Nemisis!" Megatron finally ordered.

The Autobots were left standing around, wondering what the slag just happened.

* * *

_(later that day)_

Optimus had just settled down at his desk with a cube of energon and was looking forward to some relaxing reading when...

"Prime! Starscream is hailing us and wants... er, demands permission to land. Says he has younglings with him. Oh, and Red Alert's freaking out and has locked himself in the security room again," Jazz announced over Prime's private comm. frequency.

"I see," Prime rubbed his helm and sighed.

* * *

"Congratulations, you get to sparkling sit," Starscream announced, servos on his hips.

"Ah..." Optimus rebooted his optics and focused on the younglings clinging to the seeker's shoulders.

"You have to let go now. This is your uncle, Optimus, and he'll be watching you for a few Earth days," the Air Commander said, all the while struggling to pull off at least ONE of the seekerlets clinging tightly to his armor.

"We don't wanna!"

"Yeah!"

"We didn't mean to bwake Shockwave..."

"Or flood the ship..."

Starscream let out a loud sigh and raised an optic ridge at the Prime's startled look.

"Don't ask," the seeker finally managed to tug one of the younglings off and handed him to the Prime.

"How come you don't have any wings?" the little seeker asked, staring up at the big mech holding him awkwardly.

"Are you a gound-ponder?" another youngling enquired, launching himself off Screamer's shoulder and slamming into the Prime's chest-plates, gripping his armor with sharp claws.

"I think you mean ground-pounder and that's not a nice term to use," Optimus admonished lightly, putting out a hand for the last little seekerlet that was trying to stay out of reach behind Starscream's head.

Starscream finally got a good grip and yanked the youngling gently away from his body and plunked him down in Optimus's outstretched hand. The seekerlet whimpered, giant red optics watering.

"No crying now. I'll be back as soon as the Nemisis is dry and sealed," Starscream promised, actually smiling with affection at the younglings before flying off.

"Well, that went well," Prowl announced dryly.

Three pairs of red optics stared up at the Prime, waiting for something to happen.

"Hello little ones. It looks like we'll be getting to know each other," Optimus rumbled, smiling gently behind his mask.

* * *

"And this is our med bay," Optimus told the young ones that were now sitting on his shoulders and holding tightly to his armor with sharp little claws.

"But we're not sick!" the triplets whined in unison, clinging even tighter.

The doors opened to reveal Ratchet working on Wheeljack's slightly charred body. The scientist's optics lit up at the sight of the younglings and he smiled behind his mask.

"Well, hello there," Wheeljack greeted cheerfully, despite not having hands to wave with. The inventor's servos had been blown off in his latest experiment, thus Ratchet was annoyed at having to make new ones.

The triplets stared in wonder at the inventor. They were particularly interested in his flashing head-fins.

"Where did you hands go?"

"Pretty colors!"

"Fwashy!"

Ratchet raised an optic at the Prime and smirked. "Something you forgot to tell me, Prime?"

"Uh no. They're not mine, I mean. They're Starscream's... and Megatron's," the large Autobot leader commented, looking embarrassed for a moment.

"Yep! That's our carrier and sire!" one of the seekerlets chirped, bouncing up and down on Optimus' shoulder.

* * *

Ratchet shooed them out of the med bay after filtering sparkling-grade energon for the little seekers. Optimus headed towards the rec. room to get a drink of his own. There was plenty of space there to entertain the younglings. Granted, they seemed perfectly content to ride on his shoulders (and head) and stare at passing Autobots.

Once Optimus had gotten the three little ones settled down in the rec. room, he attempted to find out what had happened to the Nemesis. The answers he received were... a little bit unusual.

"Shockwave went to sleep and got eated by Squidy. But Squidy didn't like him, so he spit him back out," the eldest youngling said.

"Went to sleep?"

"Yeah. He made us leave the room and when we turned on the TV to watch cartoons, we saw him go all sparky and then he went to sleep. Then Squidy ate him."

"Why did he make you leave the room?"

"Cause the room was flooding after we let Squidy in."

"You let a squid into the Nemesis?"

"Yeah. He's our pet Squidy and he looked hungry. Carrier said not to feed him while he and sire were fighting Autodots, but we didn't want him to be hungy, so we opened the doors and let him in."

Optimus shook his head in unspoken amusement.

* * *

Note: That's all, folks! I had originally intended more, but it never got written.


	3. Love Potion

**Ch 3: Love Potion**

(Ironhide x Starscream)

* * *

"So, let me see if I got this right," Optimus Prime stated, glancing at the weapon's specialist and his new... guest. "Wheeljack was testing out a strange new liquid when the Decepticon seekers attacked your group. Starscream tried to grab the experiment, but it exploded on him. He went offline and you attempted to capture him." Prime sighed, shaking his head before continuing. "And it appears that the liquid Wheeljack created turned out to be a strange love potion that only seems to work on seeker-models, considering you were unaffected by it."

* * *

_(earlier that day)_

"_Ok, Screamer, don't try anything or I'll take out your wings," the weapon's specialist announced, training his gun on the fallen seeker. _

_The air commander blinked his optics a few times as he looked up at Ironhide with a confused look on his face. "Ironhide... you're pretty sexy for an old mech," the self proclaimed prince of the skies sighed as he sat up slowly. _

"_Huh?" the older mech took a step back as a look of seductive interest appeared on Starscream's dark face. _

"_I do love soldiers with big... guns," Starscream smirked, launching himself at the other mech before he even had a chance to move another step._

"_Screamer, what are you doing?" Skywarp's horrified voice filled the air, drawing everyone's attention to the strange couple embracing in the middle of the clearing. _

"_I'm not doing anything!" Ironhide protested, unable to push the clingy seeker away. _

"_Mmmm... I wanna interface with you right now, baby,'" Starscream insisted, trailing his blue fingers over the other mech's large chest._

"_Let go of him, Starscream!" Bumblebee shouted, as the other Autobots circled the pair. _

_Starscream's eyes narrowed at the yellow bot and he hissed "Keep your servos where I can see them, hussy! Get your own mech, cause this hunk of hot burnin' love is mine!"_

"_Did Starscream just call Ironhide a hunk of hot burnin' love?" Sideswipe asked, blinking at his twin in shock. _

"_Oh dear," Wheeljack sighed, shaking his head. _

"_What did you do to him, you crazy scientist?!" Skywarp shouted, glaring at the Autobot. _

"_It appears that the liquid I created has a strange affect on seekers. It causes them to become infatuated with the first mech they see," the inventor explained._

"_Meaning what?!'" Ironhide shouted, still having no success in pushing the Decepticon away from him. Starscream just grinned, slipping his fingers into every opening in the taller mech's armor he could find, teasingly stroking his inner cables. _

"_He believes he is in love with you... or at the very least, he wants to interface with you," Wheeljack explained._

"_Damn. Wish he'd seen me first," Sideswipe grumbled, watching the hot seeker trying to get under Ironhide's armour, not even caring that they had an audience._

* * *

"And now he won't leave me alone," Ironhide grimaced, trying desperately to ignore the seeker cuddling up to his side.

"Prime, you're in charge. Order Ironhide to interface with me," Starscream suddenly said, turning his golden gaze on the Autobot leader.

"No. However, we will allow you to stay in our base until Wheeljack comes up with a cure, as long as you give me your word that you will not harm anyone," Prime insisted. Starscream nodded... then pinched Ironhide's aft.

"What am I suppose to do with him?" the weapon's specialist asked, looking horrified at the idea of keeping the seeker with him until a cure was found.

"Clearly, Starscream will not leave your side until a cure is found... so you'll just have to put up with him staying with you," Optimus stated.

"Am I ugly?"

Starscream's voice was strangely quiet, golden optics downcast.

"Huh?" Ironhide blinked at the seeker.

The second-in-command of the Decepticon army looked up, optics brimming with sadness. "You think I'm ugly, don't you? That's why you don't want to be with me," the seeker stated, letting go of the red mech to wrap his arms around his body.

"I didn't say that..." Ironhide was at a loss for words as he took in the sight of his enemy who seemed ready to break down in front of him.

"Don't lie to me! You hate the sight of me. It's cause I'm a seeker, isn't it? You don't like fliers, do you? If I tore off my wings, would you like me then?" Starscream looked so distraught, almost like he was ready and willing to do what he'd just offered. Ironhide looked horrified at the idea himself, but was unsure what to do.

"I'm sure Ironhide would like you if he had the chance to get to know you, Starscream," Optimus said, breaking the silence.

"I would?" the red mech blinked in surprise.

"Really?" the seeker's optics gleamed with anticipation.

"Sure. He'd love to get to know you. But, well, Autobots don't like to rush into intimate relationships. We take our time getting to know each other first before we decide to go further," Optimus continued.

"Oh, so you're saying Ironhide is shy and wants to build a relationship with me first, before we interface," Starscream said, clapping his servos together with a smile.

"I think it would be best if you toned it down a little, especially around other mechs and humans," Optimus said, smiling back.

"Ok! I'll stop teasing him in public then," Starscream agreed, grabbing onto Ironhide's arm again.

* * *

Note: Okay, not my best work. I was really into this rare pairing once upon a time. Back to digging through my old, half-written Transformers fics.


End file.
